"Footage Exposes Brutality in Bangladesh Protests"
An image can sometimes speak louder than words—occasionally even sparking a national movement. In Bangladesh, the powerful image of university student Abu Sayeed standing with open arms, holding a stick, and facing heavily-armed police alone is seen as a pivotal moment in the recent widespread protests against quotas for government jobs.
Seconds after the video captures him standing defiantly, Sayeed is shot but remains standing despite the ongoing gunfire. He collapses shortly after. The footage, which quickly went viral, galvanized more students to join the protests against reservations in civil service jobs for the family members of the 1971 independence war veterans.
The unrest that followed was marked by intense violence. Security forces in Bangladesh have been accused of using excessive force—deploying tear gas, rubber bullets, pellet guns, sound grenades, and live rounds—though they deny these claims. A curfew was imposed, accompanied by a shoot-on-sight order. Junior Minister of Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat described the video of Sayeed’s shooting as “unlawful,” stating that the young man’s death was “absolutely vivid and clear” and pledging an investigation by an independent judicial committee.
Another video, verified by the BBC’s Verify Team, shows heavily armed troops shooting at protesters from a distance in Dhaka's Mohammadpur area. Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain defended the police actions, asserting that force was used only in self-defense. “Police use force to save life and property. Any police officer fired only when it was a matter of self-defense,” Hossain said via WhatsApp.
Government-produced videos depict protesters attacking a police van and beating an officer inside it in Dhaka’s Uttara area. Arafat claimed that protesters killed a police officer and hung him upside down in Jatrabari, and that a ruling party activist was also allegedly beaten to death. Arafat insisted that the violence was not one-sided, urging people to understand both perspectives. He claimed that security forces, outnumbered and attacked, were not permitted to return fire in several instances.
According to the Bengali daily Prothom Alo and AFP news agency, over 200 people were killed, including several students and three police officers. Official government statistics list 147 deaths. The exact details and additional footage have been slow to emerge due to a government-imposed internet shutdown. However, with the partial restoration of broadband, more videos have surfaced, including one verified by the BBC showing a young man attempting to drag his injured friend to safety in Jatrabari while a plain-clothed officer fires at them. The young man flees, leaving his mortally wounded friend behind.
Both this video and the footage of Abu Sayeed illustrate what UN expert Irene Khan called “unlawful killings.” Khan, the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, stated that Sayeed posed no threat and was shot at point-blank range, a clear example of “unjustified, disproportionate violence.”
The government has accused supporters of the main opposition parties, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami, of infiltrating the student protests and attacking security forces and state property. Critics view this as a diversionary tactic by the ruling Awami League.
Since the protests subsided, the government has conducted a crackdown, arresting over 9,000 people, including opposition supporters and student leaders, a move described as being “for their own safety.” Experts warn that continued repression could lead to further unrest. “The lack of trust between the state and the people is evident,” UN expert Irene Khan observed. Bin Yamin Mollah, a student movement coordinator in hiding, echoed this sentiment, accusing the government of betrayal.
